


And try not to think of who that light may have saved

by hnathe (vesuviusPrivateer)



Category: Green Lantern: The Animated Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-29
Updated: 2012-05-29
Packaged: 2017-11-06 06:06:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/415578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vesuviusPrivateer/pseuds/hnathe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you expect a corpse, the pain is duller.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And try not to think of who that light may have saved

He wasn’t a fool. He knew how the Red Lanterns operated, and how much value would be placed on Aya’s life once she had served her purpose. After all, she was a tool to them—a means to an end that, having out-lived her usefulness, would be disposed of like so much scrap metal.

So, he was less than optimistic about her fate.

He supposed it was better to think this way; if he _did_ survive the face-off with the red armada, wouldn’t it be better to _expect_ the dismantled and lifeless pieces of her humanoid form awaiting him, than to once again experience the shock and pain of being too late to save the one he . . . cared for?

It would hurt. Being confronted with his failure to save someone important to him yet again would cut deep. It would not be the same pain as before, and perhaps it wouldn’t hurt as much—but it was going to hurt, and it was unavoidable; Hal Jordan would focus his energy on defeating the attacking reds, and protecting Oa. The Green Lantern would not have the time to spare to search for and rescue Aya—and if he and Kilowog survived their stand, they would not return in any time to save her.

She-

Aya.

Aya was doomed.

He knew as much the moment the Interceptor disappeared from frontier space. He just never voiced this fact among the Green Lanterns. They were already distraught and desperate—what good would it do to force them to acknowledge that a member of their crew may as well be dead?

“Go in the spirit of love,” Ghiata said.

It cut.

Yet, another way was offered, and he almost felt a swelling of hope within his chest. If he could reach Oa, if he could reach _Aya_ . . . then perhaps he could prove wrong the premonition in his heart that whispered death into his thoughts.

He looked through violet light and saw her.

The witch kneeled above her, and her body was motionless. Words echoed through the tunnel, barely audible. Still he heard the promise of all-but-death, and rage pooled in his stomach, forcing its way up into his chest, tightening around his heart like a vice and poisoning his veins.

Under that rage was hope, and a feeling he would not put a name to.

Because he was not too late; she was laid on the floor and her body unmoving, but there was life in her. She had been overcome, but not slain.

She lived.

He stepped forward, and struck the witch down. It all felt far too easy; were there soldiers waiting in the wings, to hold him back as they destroyed her? Did Atrocitus, perhaps, have some means to ensure her obliteration remotely? Would the violet tunnel suddenly grasp him, throwing him back from whence he came and away from her motionless and vulnerable form, putting her in harm’s way once more?

For all of his fears, none of these things happened. She spoke his name, and would have inquired as to how he had materialized before her.

He was not ready to think about that, much less speak of it. It wasn’t important—not now.

What was important was that she was here, and alive—body warm and thrumming with green energy. Not a cold and still corpse, lying as if asleep on the floor of a ruined home.

He had come back for her.

He had come back for her, and come in time.


End file.
